Personal Finance Advice

“I’m so messed up. I’m going out for a little retail therapy. Wanna come?” So began a recent conversation with my neighbor. I’ll admit that she’s got every reason to be upset: Her kids are in trouble, there are financial problems in her house, her job is a mess, and her relatives are the sort [...]

Like most people, I sometimes find myself complaining about money or “stuff.” Sometimes I get frustrated by work and money issues, or when there’s something I want that I can’t afford, either immediately or ever. There will always be people with more than me, vacations I can’t take, things I can’t own, repairs that have [...]

A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about how to prevent kids from getting bored. The point was that when kids get bored, they get expensive. It’s tempting to give into the whining and take them to the movies, buy them a new toy, or take them to a paid play space. Well, [...]

September 29, 2012 is National Public Lands Day which celebrates the many unique and beautiful public lands across the US. There is a huge effort for volunteers to help improve the public lands around them through clean-up and improvement, and this volunteerism comes with a host of benefits. From getting outdoors and improving the environment [...]

Each time that I sit down to write an article, I never really know how it will turn out or whether it will be published. That sense of unknowing always takes me back to junior high school when I was always convinced that my papers just wouldn’t measure up to expectation. So far, I have [...]

Boredom is usually a self-inflicted condition. If you take a moment to think about it, when you are on your own time, you usually control whether or not you are engaged or bored by what you are doing. If you are always looking for a television for entertainment, chances are good that you will quickly [...]

The other day a friend asked me if I gave to any charities, or did I just save all my money in order to keep myself debt free. The questioner seemed to think that a debt free life automatically equates to a miserly life. There seemed to be a belief that one cannot be both [...]

It’s been said in a derogatory way that “talk is cheap.” I suppose it is, but it is also cheap in a wonderful way. There are few things that we can do in just about every environment and every situation to relieve boredom, share companionship and stimulate the mind, but if have a suitably disposed [...]

The people around me are struggling with cut hours and layoffs, and cutting back on finances is only part of the effect. My friends are suddenly finding themselves with less to do. More time with the kids is good, but when the kids are in school — watching TV only has so much interest, until [...]

With this downturning economy, even governments are having a hard time. My own city is facing at least a $4 million dollar decrease in revenues, and my state is facing more than $140 million in shortfalls. One alternative to getting out of the situation is to raise taxes, a solution that no one likes. Thus, [...]